RK Embroidery and Quilting

Giveaway ends today!

2012-01-31T02:09:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, the time has come to choose a winner for my giveaway. The giveaway was to celebrate my first milestone of reaching 10 followers, but look what you guys have done! I now have 34 followers. I hope to keep this going till I reach hundred! so friends keep visiting and be my follower and I hope to keep inspiring you all.

I will randomly select a winner from my followers to 31 January 2012 and announce the winner on Friday, 3 February 2012, Australian time. Hopefully all of you have put your email address for me to able to contact you.

Till Friday, Keep Smiling!

Snapshot of Dubai

2012-01-31T01:58:00.000-08:00

Burj Khalifa

Burj Al Arab

Sand Dunes

Belly Dancing

Inspiration in Dubai

This is a hand embroidered piece displayed at a Louis Vuitton store at the Mall of the Emirates. Below is the story of the artist. The piece is absolutely eye catching.

Indulgence at Dubai Mall

My travels to Kenya

2012-01-30T06:58:00.000-08:00

You all would have read my earlier post on Brunei. My next travel destinations was to Kenya. My family and I had the most amazing experiences there:

Kenya is where my family is, the highlight of the trip was meeting my family and visting two national parks the Lion Hills Lodge near lake Nakuru and The Amboseli National Park at the foot hills of Mount Killimanjaro. Lake Nakuru is known for its flock of flamingoes. The edges of the lake are filled with a carpet of pink flamingoes. I remember this sight as I had seen it when I was a child, and I wanted to take my children there to see. The Lion Hills Lodge was amazing, the warm Kenyan hospitality was evident in our stay at the lodge. The Amboseli Serena Lodge was amazing too. We were able to enjoy the sight of Mount Killimanjaro to our hearts fill.

Nairobi Skyline

The building with the clock tower is Kenya's Parliament House

Some of the animals seen at both the National Parks

The Majestic Mount Kilimanjaro seen from Amboseli National Park

Kenyan Art

Kenya is well known for its soap stone art, wood carvings, batiks and its local kitenge and khanga cloth.

This Batik Piece will be in the Giveaway

and some of this Kitenge Cloth too

Report on Brunei

2012-01-14T00:40:00.000-08:00

First of all thank you all for following my blog. I am now half way into my trip. Have visited brunei, what a pleasent surprise it was. We were in Brunei in transit so managed to see a little bit of it. They have this unique system of having water villages they are like our suburbia but located on th river. Each village cluster has their own school, police station, mosque (as its predominantly a Muslim country). I saw the most beautiful mosques. What I admired most are the colorful head scarves. I bought a few, one of which I will include in my giveaway.

Unfortunately, I cannot upload my photos just yet. I will be including those when I get back to Aus.

Next report will be on Kenya. Till then keep smiling.

As promised photos of Brunei:

The famous Omar Ali Seifuddin Mosque

Water Taxi and School in the backdrop

The Sultan's Palace seen from the Water

View of the Heritage Water Village

Bruneians enjoying water sport

Happy New Year

2011-12-30T02:28:00.000-08:00

I wish all my fellow quilters and craft lovers a very Happy New Year and a Happy Fruitful 2012. May this year bring all human kind peace and harmony through the joy of creation.

Featuring fellow quilters

2011-12-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

Geta's Quilt Studio

I have been an avid fan of Geta's blog for a while now. I love the fresh and full of life quilt products she creates. Have a look at this

amazing baby quilt she has produced. The patten is for sale and you can get it on Geta's Quilting Studio Blog.

IHAN - I Have A Notion

Hop over to Kelly's store too. She has a variety of Quilt Making and Needle Art Goodies. There might be something that may interest you.

I have reached my first Goal and I am celebrating - Giveaway

2011-12-20T13:05:00.000-08:00

I have reached my first goal. My blog following has reached 10 followers. So I am celebrating and in my celebration I want to treat my fellow bloggers to a gift.

The gift will be something from my travels in January. For that you will have to leave a comment (with your email) about where I am travelling in January and be a follower of my blog.

I will select the winner in the first week of February 2012. But meanwhile do keep visiting my blog as I will be updating you about my travels and the places I am visiting.

FNSI December 16, 2011 - I am hooked

2011-12-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

Not sure yet what I am going to be upto just yet, but I am hooked onto this FNSI motivator. I will post something in a day about my project. Keep tuned in.......

I hope to finish my rose embroidery on my traditional garment. The garment comprises of a long skirt and hooded top. Its used like a 'burqa' for Dawoodi Bohra women.

Where am I heading this year

2011-12-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

Being thousands of km's away from family always creates a longing of visiting them again and again. Always wishing that when will be the next time when I will be able to just hang out with them, just be with them..................

Well the time has come, I am heading over to BRUNEI, DUBAI, and magical KENYA.

I hope to collect great inspiration, fabric, laces, beads you name it...................

Bag Handles

2011-12-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

If you have been visiting my blog you will have read one of my postings on making firmer bag handles.

Today, I came across Kimzee's Sewing Room where Kim has sewn a lovely bag for her daughter. What a gorgeous bag it is. With that I have learnt a new way to make bag handles firmer. duh! how practicle is using boning to make your bag handles firmer. Have a look at Kim's blog. What a great tip Kim!

Hydrangea Border Complete... Yaaaaaaaay!

2011-12-09T18:19:00.001-08:00

This is my first Friday Night Sew In with Heidi and Bobbi. I have been working on this project for the past year. I have finally finished my Hydrangea Border. I did the finishing off with lace and pink and purple stones which I got from India.

Click on

and you too will be able to see the lovely projects on display.

Hydrangea Border - Progress

2011-11-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

Spring in Canberra 2011 - Cockatoo in my Garden

2011-10-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

Isn't she adorable!

Confessions of a Fabric Junkie

2011-08-26T20:48:00.001-07:00

Today I went to Spotlight our local fabric store to buy border fabrics for my hydrangea border and wedding quilt, however of course I got carried away and $94.00 later this is what I ended up with:

Some bargain fabrics and some bargain yarn which I could not resist and felt a lovely bag coming up.

The fabric which I actually had gone to the shops for!@! I hope the floral works well as when I saw the tab my eyes nearly popped out.

Some impulse buying. This bundle of spotted fat quaters just lept into my hands and who am I to say no!

In the end I was redeemed as my VIP status earned me a free magazine.

If you have a similar story I would love to hear from you.

Art Quilts and Renowned Art Quilters

2011-08-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

I love the structure of Traditional Quilts, however Art Quilts have fascinated me for quite a time. I came across art quilts when I got associated to Husqavarna Embroidery Machines. Husqavarna ran quilt competitions and oh such an array of art quilts. They looked like a painting. Well my attempt at art quilting is still in progress. See my post here.

Other prominent art quilters are:

Quilter from Africa

Dena Crain

Quilters from Australia

All this quilters have their own unique styles.

What do you think, Do you think I have a bit to go :-)

My new blog template and progress on my projects

2011-08-25T17:26:00.001-07:00

New Blog Template

I love my new blog template from blogger. I think I finally have got something that suits my needs. I love how I could select my background image and the wide frame for my postings. The side bar looks great and uncluttered.

Progress On My Projects

I have finally done it. Finished all the machine embroidery work on my Hydrangea Border and now I will start on the finishing work. The finishing work will entail sewing on borders and hand embroidery. hmmm....will keep you posted.

My Wedding Quilt is moving along too, I have begun on the embroidery and also now decided how I will go with the borders. I was deciding to do something a bit more elaborate for the border but did not want to make it too busy as I am using a lovely print fabric.

Photos will soon follow, so stay tuned.

Spring is blossoming.............progress on Hydrangea embroidery border

2011-08-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

Finally, the border is happening. Creativity is flowing. Today my target is to get all the machine embroidery done. By the way if anyone is wondering the Hydrangea (Hortensia) motif is courtesy of Husqavarna. For machine embroidery enthusiasts click on the link on my blog under inspiration for free embroidery designs by Husqavarna.

Oh and this is the Husqavarna Emroidering the Hydrangea!

2011-08-12T22:23:00.001-07:00

Single Hydrangea Emboridery

2011-08-12T22:18:00.001-07:00

This is my progress on embroidering Single Hydrangea flower (free design courtesy Husqavarna) as a border around a sky blue fabric. In between the Hydragea's I am embrodering a spray of leaves.

I am sorry at present you will have to use your imagination, hopefully soon I will be able to show you all the completed border.

When your sister sends you a package full of love

2011-08-12T21:59:00.001-07:00

Recently I received a package from my sister in Kenya. The package was full of lovely treasures, designed and embroidered in her workshop. Her workshop is called 'Creative Stitches', she designs and embroiders lovely traditional clothes worn by the Indian dawoodi bohra muslim community. The one in this photo is worn when going to the mosque for prayers.

The full set of clothes consist of a long embroidered skirt, a full head covering, a prayer mat and an embroidered bag. A similar sort of clothing is worn by the women of Rajasthan in India.

The border is made out of patchwork tecnique and various technique is used for emboridery, applique, 'abla' work (mirror work) and others.

Is'nt it just devine. Can't wait to wear this.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2011

2011-05-15T04:27:00.000-07:00

I am displaying this floral mini quilt in the 'blogger's quilt festival - Spring 2011'.

I made this quilt in a Canberra Quilters workshop run by Beth Miller. This is my first art quilt. What inspired me to learn how to make art quilts is Beth Miller's quilts. If you check her website out you will know what I mean.

When making this quilt I learnt quite a few techniques and learnt some insight into how to make an art quilt, and if you see the actual quilt work in the background, I did that for the first time too and I was quite impressed with the finished product.

Whilst making this quilt I learnt about the endless posibilities of converting some covetted photo memories into quilts and the freedom of using a multitude of techniques to get the desired effects.

Hope you all have a great time in the Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2011.

Further progress on LM's Wedding Quilt

2011-04-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

What fun I had! I went to my local shop Spotlight where you get awesome quilt fabrics at a reasonable price.

I chose the dusty pink flowers on pink and the floral fabric based on a mustard background. The other pink fabric is for the backing and I also bought the batting. Now I have no excuse I have all the required material plus time to finish this quilt!

My Sewing Space

2011-04-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

This is my Husqavarna Designer SE. I have owned it since 2007 and my sewing cabinet which holds all my cotton and embroidery threads.

Today I wanted to share with you my sewing, quilting and embroidery haven. This sewing space has seen a number of transformations. I have sewn wedding dresses, my childrens clothes, my traditional garments and now my quilts, bags and anything that takes my fancy.

In the background you can see my sewing table, which has my current quilt project and also my laptop on which I have my EQ 6. The sets of drawers underneath my table and the big box has all my fabric goodies, which I love to just look at and work out my next project.

I give to God, my wish and my dream is to have a seperate studio where I am creating all day long and sharing my lovely creations with the world..................

Progress on LM's Wedding Quilt

2011-04-23T17:06:00.001-07:00

My last post on April 9, 2011 was about a quilt I am making for my niece for her wedding. I am making good use of my Easter break and here are my efforts. You will notice that I have made some changes to my design and I have replaced eight diagonal log cabin with a rectangular white fabric. In this space I will add an embroider feature.

To break the pink colouring I will now look for a floral or a fabric with interesting colour combination with a bit more green and other interesting colours.

I am excited for reaching this far in such a short time.

LM's Wedding Quilt

2011-04-09T21:09:00.001-07:00

This is a quilt in the making for niece who is getting married in July. Since it is a wedding quilt I wanted to make it pretty special. I asked her to give some of her favourite colours which are:

Fuchsia, purple, mustard, green and so on. I think this is going to be an interesting combination.

What I am planning to do is to combine quilting and with some computerised embroidery motifs.

So first off I start by planning the centre of the quilt and my earlier thoughts to use these blocks:

But now I am thinking of using the traditionol 'Log Cabin' Block as shown in the first image, that way I will be able to embroider the plain centre of the block.

Wish me luck!